


Blood and Brains

by Spikedluv



Category: Adam Lambert (Musician), American Idol RPF, Kris Allen (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Vampire, M/M, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-29
Updated: 2011-01-29
Packaged: 2017-10-15 05:24:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/157467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spikedluv/pseuds/Spikedluv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It’s not zombies,” Kris said firmly, as much for his own sake as Alli’s.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blood and Brains

**Author's Note:**

> This story is inspired by Blood Ties (TV series), though I’ve taken liberties with the show and made some changes to suit myself. Kradam/AI characters have replaced recognizable Blood Ties characters.
> 
> Written: December 23, 2010

Kris slapped at Allison’s pointy finger. “I’m awake,” he growled, or tried to. He couldn’t be expected to be coherent first thing in the morning.

“You slept at the office again,” Alli accused.

“I came in early?” Kris said tentatively, eliciting a snort from Alli.

“Not if the state of your hair is any indication.”

Kris’ hand went protectively to his hair, which he knew from experience was probably sticking up in all directions.

“Here,” Alli said, releasing the paper she held and letting it flutter onto his chest.

“What’s this?” Kris asked as he reached out blindly and fumbled for his glasses.

Alli took pity on him and snatched the glasses off the coffee table and slapped them into his hand.

“Thanks,” Kris said as he slipped them onto his face and sat up, grabbing for the message slip as it slid off his chest. “Now, what . . . ?”

“Your nine o’clock appointment.”

Kris groaned. “Oh, god, what time is it?”

“Eight.”

“I need . . . .”

“A shower,” Alli finished for him.

“Coffee,” Kris said, trying to glare at her, but falling way short. He could smell it, so he knew that Alli was holding out on him.

“Fine,” Alli relented, pressing a steaming mug of coffee into his hand, “coffee first, then a shower.”

“I love you,” Kris moaned as he held the mug to his face and just breathed in the scent.

“Uh huh. Is that why you told my mother I wanted to get my tongue pierced?”

“Hell, no,” Kris said. “I told her that because she scares me.”

Kris carefully sipped the hot coffee while Alli laughed at him. “Okay,” he said when he felt slightly more awake. “What’s the case?”

“Grave desecration.”

“What’s missing, jewelry?”

“The body.”

“The body?”

“Yes.”

“Who would want the body?”

“If we knew that, it wouldn’t be missing,” Alli replied tartly.

“You’re mean in the morning,” Kris pouted.

“My mother left me five messages regaling me with the horrors of tongue piercings. Five.”

“Coulda been worse,” Kris said, “I could’ve told her about the tattoo.”

“I hate you,” Alli said as she stormed out of Kris’ office, red, purple and blue hair flying behind her.

“You love me!” Kris called after her.

“Shower, then we’ll talk,” Alli said.

Kris took a few minutes to let the caffeine recharge his batteries, then stood and stretched. The used couch he’d found for his office was a torture device, but sometimes it was the better alternative to returning to his empty apartment.

“You awake now?” Alli said as Kris shambled into the reception area.

“Yes. Wait, no.” Kris finished the coffee, then handed the empty mug to Alli. “Yes.”

“Forty minutes,” Alli said and sent Kris scrambling for the bathroom.

Kris was showered and dressed in clean clothes, his hair having received Alli’s seal of approval, before their client, Tanya Morris arrived. Kris greeted her and offered to take her jacket, then led her to the couch in his office where she’d be (slightly) more comfortable than in one of the desk chairs, but mostly because he hoped it would put her more at ease to tell him her story.

Alli appeared and handed Miss Morris the mug of tea she’d requested, and held out the file she’d opened on the case to Kris. Kris took the folder, glanced at the intake form Alli had filled out with as much information as they currently had, and then nodded to Alli. She returned to her desk, leaving the door open so she could eavesdrop.

Kris collected a pad of paper and pen from his desk, then sat at the opposite end of the couch from Tanya Morris. He waited for her to take a sip of tea before gently asking her to tell him why she was there. Tanya told him everything she knew about her father’s missing body, which wasn’t much.

When asked why she’d turned to Allen Investigations, she said that the police had pretty much told her that they’d done all they could, that they’d keep the file open, but it wouldn’t be a priority.

“And I understand,” she said, “I do, that there are much more heinous crimes to be solved, but this is important to me. It’s my _father_.”

“I understand,” Kris said, and then started asking questions that might help him determine who (if not why they had done so) had stolen Oliver Morris’ body. Was he buried with any valuables (No.), did he have any enemies that she knew of (No, everyone loved him. If Kris had a quarter for every time someone told him that he’d be rich by now.), did anything strange happen recently (Nothing aside from her father’s missing body.), had anyone been acting odd or unduly upset when he died (Not that she’d noticed.)?

She gave Kris the name of Oliver Morris’ friend and business partner, and gave them permission to gather any information they needed to help find her father. Kris thanked her for coming to them, and promised to do his best to help her, then turned Tanya Morris over to Allison who went over their standard contract with her and collected a retainer from her after she’d signed it.

“What do you think?” Kris asked after Tanya Morris left.

“No jewelry,” Alli said, “presuming she was telling the truth, but even if there had been valuables in the coffin, why take the body? I mean, what good is the body to anyone? Can’t use any of the bits for transplants. Is it even any good for medical students to practice on?” she said, referring to an old case where a rash of missing bodies was traced to the door of people who sold the corpses to medical schools. “Not that they’d need them, with people donating themselves to science, and all.”

Kris nodded as he let her work through the little information they had, then added his own thoughts. “It’s possible someone with a grudge wanted to do violence to the body, cut it up, burn it, but why move it? And if that was the case, what’s left of the body should have been found already, unless the person who stole it didn’t want the body found. But why not? Is there something about the body itself that’s important?”

“Who the heck would want to dig up a corpse?” Alli said, shuddering.

“Unless the body just got up and walked away,” Kris said with a chuckle.

Alli’s eyes went round and Kris’ chuckle died as they both froze and stared at each other for a beat.

“Do you think . . . ?” Allison asked.

Kris shook his head. “No, absolutely not.”

“But what if . . . ?”

“It’s not zombies,” Kris said firmly, as much for his own sake as Alli’s.

“Okay,” Alli said, her tone making it clear that it was _not_ alright, “then why would grave robbers take a _body_?”

“That’s what we need to figure out.” Kris thought for a minute. “I’m going to check out the grave, and then see if I can get a look at the police report. You,” he pointed at her, “see what you can find out about Mr. Morris, his company . . . .”

“His business partner, blah, blah, blah,” Alli finished.

She followed Kris into his office and watched him strap on his shoulder holster. He didn’t expect to need it, but old habits died hard. Kris retrieved his Glock from the top drawer of his desk and slapped a full clip into it.

“When I finish that I’ll see what I can find out about zombies,” Alli said.

Kris gave her a narrow-eyed glare as he snapped the gun into his holster. “Do we really need zombies on top of everything else? I mean, isn’t it enough that there are witches, and demons, and werewolves?”

“Don’t forget about vampires,” Alli said with a smirk.

Kris did not blush as his mind immediately supplied the image of one vampire in particular. He grabbed his leather jacket off the hook and shrugged it on.

“If you want a quick answer you could always ask Adam,” Alli suggested slyly.

“I am not asking Adam,” Kris said as he slammed out the door.

~*~*~*~

Sundown found Kris outside Adam’s building. Adam was waiting for him when the elevator dropped him off on Adam’s floor, leaning against the door frame of his apartment wearing a smile and a pair of silk lounge pants that he’d probably designed himself. He had to have just rolled out of bed (or at least off the mattress), and yet Adam looked like he was ready to pose for a fashion magazine.

“I need to ask you a question,” Kris said after Adam let him into the apartment and closed the door behind them.

“Mmm,” Adam said with a disappointed sigh. “Business, then. And I was so hoping it was pleasure.”

Kris rolled his eyes, but otherwise ignored Adam’s innuendo. Or tried to. It was difficult when he knew what Adam’s skin tasted like, and it took all his self-control to keep from begging to be allowed to lick that one spot behind his ear that made Adam shiver and moan.

Kris shook off the memory. “What can you tell me about zombies?”

Kris had checked out the grave, now dug up by the forensics team, the empty coffin taken back to the lab to see what they could find. He’d gone from the cemetery to LAPD hoping to gain access to the police report via one of his contacts there.

“Hey, look what the cat dragged in,” Anoop said when he caught sight of Kris, slapping him on the shoulder. “How you doing, man?”

“I’m good, Anoop, how are you?”

“Oh, you know, overflowing with the milk of human kindness,” Anoop replied wryly, dropping a folder on the blotter in the middle of his desk.

“How’s Megan?” Kris asked, smiling as a soft flush crept up Anoop’s neck.

Megan was the medical examiner, and she and Anoop had been an item for a couple of weeks, Anoop’s pathetic attempts to woo her finally paying off when she agreed to go to dinner and a show (he’d scored tickets to Los Angeles Repertory Theater’s production of Wicked) with him.

“Good,” Annop said with a huge smile. “Great.”

Kris laughed; he recognized that smile and knew better than to ask any more questions because he might be more embarrassed than Anoop by the answers.

“Yo, Allen!” Matt said as he swept into the bullpen. “What brings you to our little corner of the world?”

“Hey, Matt,” Kris said, giving the other man a hug. They’d been partners for two years before Kris had chosen early retirement over riding a desk for the rest of his career, and friends for longer than that.

“Actually, I need a favor,” Kris said as Matt dropped his jacket over the back of his chair.

“There’s a shock,” Matt said, unable to keep a hint of bitterness out of his voice. “You never stop in anymore unless you want a favor.”

Kris thought that was a little bit unfair, since Matt knew how Kris felt about being forced to leave a job he loved. Nerve damage when Kris had taken a bullet to the elbow meant that his hand might shake unexpectedly when he was aiming his weapon; it kept him from passing the firearms exam and therefore off the streets. Choosing early retirement had been a difficult decision for Kris, and it took a lot for him to return to the precinct for the necessity of work-related matters. For Matt to expect him to drop by for a social call seemed to fall on the unreasonable side.

However, Kris didn’t call Matt on his behavior like he might have done a month ago, before he’d not so helpfully been informed that Matt had a crush on him, and probably had for years. (When Kris had first introduced Matt to Adam, he hadn’t understood why Matt seemed to take an instant dislike to the other man (vampire, but Matt didn’t know that, either) until Adam happily explained to Kris that Matt was jealous.

Kris had naively said, “But we haven’t been partners for over a year, and he has Anoop now, anyway.”

Adam had just laughed and laughed, and left it to Alli, who was looking at Kris as if he was an adorable, if misguided puppy, to tell Kris that Matt had a crush on him. Kris had vehemently denied it, which had only made Adam laugh harder, and Allison shake her head.)

Part of Matt’s anger, Kris now realized, stemmed from Kris’ relationship with Adam. It had been bad enough when he and Adam were merely colleagues working on a couple of *weird* cases together, but it had gotten worse when Matt discovered that Kris had accidentally (to this day Kris would swear it was an accident because he hadn’t _meant_ for it to happen) slept with Adam that _one time_ (okay, three, but Matt didn’t know about those other times). Since then Matt had turned his resentment onto Kris, as well.

Kris tried to ignore Matt’s bitterness, mainly because it allowed him to continue pretending that Adam and Allison were both wrong, but it was getting more difficult to let Matt’s comments slide off his back, even with Anoop running interference.

“What do you need?” Annop said now, ignoring Matt’s mutters and kicking out the chair beside his desk for Kris, before pulling out his own chair and sitting.

Kris gratefully sank into the seat and told Anoop about the grave robbery case. They both ignored Matt’s snort of derision.

“Her father’s body is missing,” Kris said, “and we all know that it’ll be a low priority case.”

Not because nobody cared, Kris knew, but because murder and rape and drugs trumped a missing corpse that had been determined to have died from natural causes, and had already been buried once.

“I’ve already been to the grave, but there wasn’t much left to see. I was hoping to see the crime scene photos, get a look at the site before they removed the coffin.”

While Kris waited for Anoop to pull up the case file, Sarver dropped off a report and took a few minutes to catch Kris up on his family, and then Alexis popped over to say hi. When Anoop had the file open on the screen, he turned the monitor so Kris could read it. There was very little information in the file, most of it Kris already knew from Tanya Morris, but the pictures told another story.

Instead of an open wound in the earth large enough for someone to climb inside and remove a body from the coffin, there was a ragged hole, as if someone had dug themselves _out_ of the grave. Additionally, photographs of the coffin, once it had been uncovered by the forensics team, showed that the wood of the lid had been splintered outward.

The report didn’t say, but Kris wondered if there’d been anything strange discovered grave side, candles or fetishes that might have assisted in a ritual or spell of some kind. Kris wrote down the name of the investigating officer who’d written the report, as well as the groundskeeper who’d discovered the theft. It looked like he’d be making a trip back to the cemetery to follow up on (god, he didn’t even want to think it in the privacy of his own head) the zombie aspect of the case.

Kris thanked Anoop for the information and by then Matt seemed to be over his hissy fit, so they all made plans to get together for a drink before they let too much more time slip past. As soon as he was outside the precinct Kris called Allison to see what she’d found out about the former Mr. Morris, his company, and his business partner, Timothy Lehigh.

Alli filled him in on the company’s finances, and then the seemingly genial relationship between the partners, who’d met in college. Lehigh was even Tanya’s godfather. Before they disconnected Kris told Allison to keep researching the people closest to the victim, but that once she was finished with that, to see what her sources could tell her about zombies. He hung up on her gloating laughter.

Kris returned to the cemetery and found the groundskeeper, but the man didn’t remember seeing anything odd, aside from the hole in the ground. Kris’ visits to the cemetery and the precinct had yielded few answers, and raised even more questions. His next stop was the business partner. Kris didn’t call ahead, hoping that Lehigh’s reaction to seeing him might offer up a clue.

Lehigh was willing to meet with Kris once he’d explained why he was there, and he greeted Kris with just the right amount of pleasantry mixed with grief. He told Kris about the company and his friendship with Oliver Morris with little prompting. The more he talked, though, the more Kris got the feeling there was something he wasn’t saying.

After hearing the man’s forced laughter at the story he’d just told him, Kris realized what it was. “You’re angry,” he said softly.

Several expressions crossed Lehigh’s face and Kris wondered if he was going to try and lie, but he finally settled on resigned. Lehigh sighed and slumped dejectedly in his seat. He raised his arm carefully and wiped a hand over his face.

“Yes, I’m angry,” he admitted wearily. “Son of a bitch wasn’t supposed to die.”

Kris asked about enemies, people Morris might have angered who may have done this out of revenge. Lehigh named two employees who had left the company under a cloud, but couldn’t think of what they, or anyone, hoped to achieve by stealing his body. The only people that action had hurt were the living.

Which led Kris to his next line of questioning, anyone Lehigh could think of who might want to hurt him or Tanya. Lehigh looked aghast at the suggestion that anyone would want to hurt Tanya, but he answered the question readily enough, though in the negative. Kris was never sure whether he felt better that people thought no one had enemies, or if he wanted them to have a list of names ready so he had _something_ to go on.

Kris thanked Timothy Lehigh for his time and left, promising to do everything he could to find the person who had done this. Back in the parking lot Kris went over everything he’d learned so far. He hated how easy it was for him to believe that Oliver Morris had been brought back as a zombie and had clawed his way out of his own grave, but given what he’d learned about the case, it was the most – he hesitated to say logical or reasonable – explanation.

Even if it was true, though, it raised the question _why_. Why would someone want to bring anyone, much less Oliver Morris, back as a zombie?

Kris’ stomach growled, reminding him that he’d skipped lunch. He drove back to the office and parked, then called Allison as he walked to his favorite café.

“Yo, boss man,” Alli said when she answered his call.

“Alli cat,” Kris said wryly. “I’m back, but I’m going to grab a sandwich. Want me to bring anything back for you?”

“Milkshake,” Alli promptly replied. “Mocha.”

“Done. How’s the research going?”

“Super,” Alli said dryly. “You know how much I love studying financials.”

“What about the background checks, you usually enjoy those.”

“I love digging up juicy tidbits,” Allison corrected, “but these people are about as exciting as watching paint dry. Not a single scandal, not even a measly tawdry affair,” she said sadly.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Kris said, only half joking. Who’d steal the body of a squeaky clean businessman? Or in the alternative, turn him into a zombie? “Try these two,” he said, and gave her the names of the two ex-employees Lehigh had told him about.

“Got ‘em,” Alli said. “I’ll see what I can find.”

“Okay, good. Listen, I’m there,” Kris said as he approached the front door of Cook’s Café. “I’ll be back soon.”

Kris ended the call and tucked the cell into his pocket. A bell rang as Kris opened the door and entered the café. “Hey, Archie,” he greeted the young man on the other side of the counter as he stepped up to it.

“Kris, hey there! How’s it going?”

“Pretty good, except I missed lunch, and Alli’s ready for a mid-afternoon snack.”

“Ham and swiss on rye and a mocha shake?”

“Am I too predictable?” Kris said.

Archie just smiled as he rang up the order. Kris paid, and then sat at the counter to wait the few minutes it would take for his order to be ready. He chatted with Archie as the young man bustled about, refilling coffee, clearing tables, and making change.

Less than five minutes later David Cook set Kris’ wrapped sandwich and Alli’s milkshake on the counter in front of him. They passed a few minutes talking about the weather, the neighborhood, and the state of business while Archie busied himself nearby, flushing whenever he glanced over at Cook.

When Archie was distracted by a request for a water refill, Kris asked Cook, “You ever gonna put him out of his misery?”

Cook shrugged, but his eyes followed Archie avidly. “Thinking about it.”

Kris shook his head and chuckled. “Okay, I’ve got to get back to work. Thanks for this.” He picked up the sandwich and shake and extended them towards Cook, then sketched a finger wave in Archie’s direction as he left.

Alli glanced up from the monitor when Kris stepped into the office. Her pleasant expression immediately turned to one of greed when she saw Kris, or more specifically, saw the shake he was carrying. She held out both hands and bounced in her seat.

“Gimme, gimme, gimme!”

Kris checked the door with his hip and crossed the room to hand the milkshake to her. He cleared a spot on the corner of Alli’s desk for his lunch and then hung up his jacket. Kris sat in the chair across from Allison and unwrapped his sandwich.

“Find anything new?” Kris asked before he took a bite.

“I checked on the two employees Mr. Morris fired; one has an even better job now, and the other moved out of state.”

Alli grimaced at the bad news, and Kris sighed. Another dead end.

“Okay,” Kris said reluctantly, “what about the other?”

“What other?” Alli asked, with a faked innocence as she placed the straw between her lips.

“You’re gonna make me say it, aren’t you?”

“Yep.”

Kris took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes, then set them back on his nose. “Zombies,” he said, “tell me about zombies.”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Allison said. “Turns out there are as many supposed spells or rituals for raising a zombie as there are sources on zombies, but no one seems really sure why you’d _want_ to. One guy suggested that an army of the walking dead would be cheap and easily replaceable, except they’re kind of stupid, with only one thing on their minds.”

“Let me guess,” Kris said, and they both growled, “Brains!” and then Allison laughed.

“However,” Alli went on after she got herself back under control, “one woman suggested that if you brought someone back soon after death, within a couple of days, there would be enough electrical impulses in the brain for the, uh, zombie to form thoughts, speak.”

“Answer questions,” Kris said.

“Yeah.”

“Like, where’d you put the will.”

“Or hide the diamonds.”

“So what would anyone want to ask Mr. Morris?”

“That,” said Alli as she finished her shake, “is the million dollar question.”

“Okay,” Kris said as he crumpled up his sandwich wrapper. “Add whatever you’ve discovered to the file and set it on my desk so I can go over it. I’m just gonna go wash up.”

Kris tossed the wrapper into the waste basket before heading for the bathroom. He relieved himself and stared at his reflection in the mirror above the sink as he washed his hands. He ran a wet hand through his hair, then went out to his desk to try and determine who had stolen Oliver Morris’ body, and possibly brought him back as a zombie.

Kris wrote up his notes on the interviews he’d conducted and added them to the folder, then reviewed the entire file, from intake form through zombie print outs. When he was done Kris’ eyes were killing him, but he’d had no brilliant flashes of insight.

“Anything?” Alli asked.

Kris glanced up to where Alli stood on the other side of his desk, shook his head. “What have you been up to?”

“I called Mr. Harrold, told him if he didn’t pay us we’d send copies of the pictures we took to his wife.”

Kris gave Alli a horrified look. “Please tell me you didn’t do that.”

“I didn’t do that,” Allison relented, “but it would’ve been worth it just to see that expression on your face. I was very polite as I reminded him of his outstanding bill.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I also scheduled you an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. She didn’t sound too crazy.”

“Awesome.” Kris could do with less crazy in his life.

“You need me to do anything else before I leave?”

Kris leaned back in his chair and stretched his back until he felt a satisfying pop. “Nah, you can head out. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Okay,” Alli said, but she hesitated. “What are you going to do?”

“I,” Kris said, trying to sound nonchalant, “am going to see what else I can find out about zombies.”

Sadly, Allison knew him too well. She grinned. “Tell Adam I said hi.”

Kris grunted in reply.

~*~*~*~

“Zombies,” Adam said now, shuddering delicately. “Nasty creatures.”

Adam stepped up behind Kris and slid his jacket off his shoulders.

“Adam,” Kris protested, but did nothing to stop him.

“You’ve got a headache,” Adam said, as if that explained why he needed to remove Kris’ jacket. He ran his hand up the back of Kris’ neck, squeezing gently. Kris bit back a moan as he leaned into the touch.

“Sit,” Adam said, releasing Kris before he could come to his senses and pull away.

Kris dropped the folder he’d brought with him on the coffee table and sat. Adam’s couch was Kris’ most sinfully decadent pleasure. He would have preferred to have kept that as his little secret, but Kris had a feeling that Adam already knew. Adam returned moments after Kris had sunk into the wonderfully comfortable cushions and handed him a bottle of water.

“Drink,” Adam said, “you’re probably dehydrated.”

“I’m not dehydrated,” Kris muttered, even as he twisted off the cap and took a long drink. For a vampire, Adam was such a mother hen.

Adam made a noncommital sound as he watched Kris drain half the bottle.

“Thirsty does not necessarily mean dehydrated,” Kris insisted as he screwed the cap back on.

“Mmm hmm.”

Adam sat on the other end of the couch, then waggled his fingers at Kris and patted his leg. Kris didn’t want to admit even to himself how tempting that offer was.

“I don’t have time . . . .”

“You’re going to waste the rest of the night fighting off that headache; you know you don’t function well when . . . .”

“Adam.” It was really irritating that Adam knew him so well.

“Come on,” Adam said, holding his hand out to Kris in invitation.

Come in to my parlor, Kris thought, but he conceded, giving in only because he knew that Adam wouldn’t, and Adam had a little thing called immortality on his side. He tipped over and rested his head in Adam’s lap, unable this time to bite back the moan when gentle fingers touched his temple.

“Relax, just for a few minutes,” Adam said, “and then you can tell me all about the impending zombie apocalypse.”

“It’s not . . . ,” Kris began to argue, but then he just closed his mouth, and his eyes, and let the tension bleed out under Adam’s touch.

Kris laid there in silence as Adam’s fingers moved over his scalp, then down his neck and across his shoulder. When his body filled with a tension that had nothing to do with stress or his headache, Kris started talking in an attempt to take his mind off it.

He told Adam about the missing body, and how they couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to steal said body, and the state of the grave, and how the victim seemed squeaky clean . . . .

“Zombies,” Adam sighed. “Why couldn’t it be anything but zombies?”

“Tell me you did not just say that. You realize you’ve jinxed us now.”

Adam chuckled.

“I’m serious,” Kris said, pinching Adam’s leg. “Do you know whether it’s true that if someone raised a zombie soon after death, they’d actually be able to communicate with it? Like, ask it questions?”

“Yes, to some degree. But the window is very small. 48 hours, maybe 72, but anything longer than that and you’re looking at a mindless desire for . . . .”

“Brains,” Kris filled in morosely.

Adam chuckled again. “I was going to say violence, but yes, hunger would drive it as well. How long was it for your victim?”

“Five days.”

“Oh. That’s . . . .”

“Yeah.” Way outside the 72-hour window.

“Has it attacked anyone?”

Kris sat up. “I haven’t heard of any attacks.” He ran his hand through his hair, messing it up more than it already was from Adam’s fingers. “We have to find it before it attacks anyone.”

“But we don’t know who raised it,” Adam reminded him.

Kris groaned and dropped back down, his head landing hard in Adam’s lap. “No.”

“Whoa! Be careful there,” Adam warned, sliding his hand beneath Kris’ head before it could do any damage.

“It’s unlikely to be a stranger,” Kris reasoned, pushing his head into Adam’s hand. “I mean, if they wanted to create a zombie army, or something, there’d be more than one missing body, and someone would’ve noticed them wandering around by now. And what would a stranger want to ask? I suppose they might want to ask if he had any cash or jewels lying around, or the password to his security system . . . .” Kris trailed off.

If it was a stranger, it would be much more difficult to discover who had done this. At least until they’d used the information they got from him to steal something, or whatever. Assuming they could get anything useful out of it.

“Okay, well, that really opens things up. For now let’s presume that it wasn’t a stranger, and concentrate on people who knew the victim,” Adam suggested.

“The two people who he was closest to were his daughter and his business partner. It’s unlikely that his daughter would’ve come to me if she was behind it. All she had to do was let the case wither at the bottom of some overworked uniform’s inbox with no one the wiser.”

“Which leaves the business partner.”

“I spoke with him this afternoon,” Kris said. “He didn’t appear to be hiding anything.”

“I don’t suppose he sported any obvious bites or scratches?”

“Because he wouldn’t be able to control the zombie,” Kris said. “It would be just as likely to attack him as anyone else.”

“Yes, and no. The person who raised the zombie, even so long after death, would have a small degree of control over it, even if it was just enough to point and say ‘kill’, though not much more than that.”

“Okay.” Kris thought back to his meeting with Lehigh and shook his head. “No, nothing visible. Although.”

“What?”

“His right arm,” Kris said, reaching over and touching his own right arm as he remembered how the other man had carried it. “He held it kind of stiffly.”

“As if he’d been wounded? Possibly bitten by a zombie?”

“As if,” Kris agreed, sitting up again.

“Any record of an old injury?”

“No,” Kris said. He’d scoured all the information Alli had uncovered and there had been no mention of an existing injury.

“Okay, say it’s Lehigh,” Adam said, “where’s he keeping Morris the Zombie?”

Kris tapped his fist against Adam’s leg at the characterization of the victim, but was too intent on finding the answer to the question Adam had asked to even bother to glare at him. It would be futile anyway. Kris thought that Adam often said things like that just to get a reaction out of him.

“He’d need somewhere private,” Kris said as he slid the folder over and flipped it open.

“Where’s he live?”

Kris read off Lehigh’s address.

Adam shook his head. “Too many neighbors there.”

“And too much chance for discovery at the office,” Kris said as he skimmed the background information Allison had gathered on Timothy Lehigh. He knew he’d seen something . . . . Kris moved his attention to the company, and there it was. Kris poked triumphantly at the line of text. “The company owns a warehouse.”

“Which would be the perfect place to hide a zombie,” Adam said. He rose gracefully and stepped around the coffee table. “We’d better get going then.”

“Take care of the zombie before it hurts anyone,” Kris said, standing as well.

“Hurts anyone _else_ ,” Adam corrected. “But actually, I was thinking that the quicker we dispatch the zombie, the sooner we can get back here and have sex.”

Kris’ entire body went tight at Adam’s comment, and then he forced down his reaction. “We’re not . . . .”

Kris shook his head. He didn’t have time to argue, and besides, Adam had already disappeared inside his bedroom. Plus there was the fact that he’d only end up looking foolish when Adam magicked his clothes off later. There was nothing more annoying than a gloating Adam, and Kris had few illusions left. If Adam was determined to have Kris naked beneath him, or against the nearest vertical surface, there would be little that Kris could do to stop him, and in fact, would probably have no _inclination_ to stop him. Adam was sneaky like that.

Adam reappeared from his bedroom dressed all in black, from his boots and leather pants, to the silk shirt he was still buttoning. Adam put on a black leather coat that swung around his calves, and then swept across the room to his weapons’ locker and drew out a sword.

“What are you doing?”

“During the course of your research, you did come across _how_ to kill them, right?”

“Uhhh.”

Adam shot Kris an exasperated glare, and Kris had to drop the pretense and laugh. “Of course we came across how to kill them – a bullet to the brain will do it.”

“So will cutting off their heads,” Adam said, expertly brandishing the sword before sliding it back into the scabbard and slipping it beneath his coat. “Let’s go find us a zombie.”

Kris shook his head at Adam’s enthusiasm as he shrugged into his jacket and followed Adam out. Kris insisted on driving because he’d ridden with Adam before, and had sworn never to do so again unless he was unconscious or too badly injured to argue, in which case he figured it wouldn’t matter.

Kris parked down the street from the warehouse, beneath a blown street light. Kris checked his pockets out of habit to make sure he had extra clips, and then, clinging to the shadows, he and Adam made their way to the warehouse. They tried the door and the truck entrance, but both were locked up tight.

Kris reached into his pocket for the set of lock picks Matt had gotten him as a joke when Kris told him he was going into the P.I. business, but before he could get his fingers on them Adam put his shoulder to the door and pushed it in with a creak of bending metal. The noise sounded loud in the silence, but Kris hoped that anyone inside the building was far enough away that they hadn’t heard it. Though he had no idea how well zombies could hear, so he asked Adam.

“Not as well as they can smell,” Adam said, speaking low.

“Awesome,” Kris said, keeping his voice low as well.

It wasn’t difficult to find Lehigh and what was left of Oliver Morris. He hadn’t been dead long enough for decomp to make just looking at him a challenge, but there was no way he’d pass for human, no matter how much foundation they caked on his skin. And the smell was . . . .

“Thank god I no longer need to breathe,” Adam said, grimacing.

Unfortunately Kris didn’t have that luxury. “Oh god, he _reeks_.”

“Zombies,” Adam spat.

Kris was in total agreement with that sentiment. Telling himself that this particular zombie had once been a human being, someone’s father, didn’t help. Adam had been right, zombies were nasty creatures.

Kris and Adam stepped out of hiding, but Lehigh was too busy yelling, “Where did you hide it? Tell me, damn it!” to notice them, until the zombie raised its nose in the air, sniffing like a dog on a scent.

“What is it?” Lehigh said, just as the zombie roared and turned its head in Kris and Adam’s direction.

“Uh oh,” Kris said when the zombie started shuffling towards them. It gave Adam a once over, then turned its attention to Kris.

“At least it’s got good taste,” Adam said.

“Funny. It looks really hungry,” Kris noticed. “Why didn’t it munch on _him_?”

“You!” Lehigh squealed when he recognized Kris. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for him. It,” Kris replied, keeping his eyes on the shambling former Mr. Morris.

“I’m not hurting anyone!” Lehigh insisted.

“Okay, we need to do something,” Adam said as the zombie drew nearer.

“I’m sorry,” Kris told the zombie as he unsnapped his holster and drew his weapon. “Your daughter loves you.”

Lehigh screamed, “No!” and rushed forward as Kris pointed the gun and pulled the trigger, putting a bullet in Morris’ brain.

The zombie took one more unsteady step forward before it lost its momentum and slowly topped to the side. Only then did Kris turn his attention to Lehigh, who had been intercepted by Adam. Spittle sprayed as Lehigh screamed out his fury at the final death of the thing that had once been his friend and business partner.

“Don’t let him bite you,” Kris warned as Lehigh clawed at Adam’s leather covered arms and twisted in his grip in an attempt to free himself.

“He couldn’t hurt me,” Adam said. “I’m already dead.”

But he punched Lehigh in the jaw anyway, knocking him unconscious, and then laid his unconscious body on the floor.

“Yeah, well, *he* was already dead, too,” Kris pointed out, indicating Mr. Morris.

“That’s different,” Adam said, but didn’t bother to explain how. “What are we going to do with him?”

“Turn him over to the authorities?” Kris said, though he knew it wouldn’t be that simple.

“And have him babble on about zombies?”

“He seemed a lot more lucid this afternoon when I met with him.”

“If he’s been infected, that would explain it,” Adam said. “The authorities would have no idea how to deal with a zombie, and from the looks of him, he’s going to turn.”

Adam squatted beside Lehigh’s still form and tore his sleeve off to reveal a bandage that had been soaked through with blood and other nasty looking fluids. Adam gingerly took hold of a corner and ripped off the gauze, revealing a bite that appeared to be infected.

Kris gagged at the stench.

“Yeah,” Adam said as he stepped away from the unconscious man, “he’s royally screwed.”

“Wait, what are you doing?” Kris said as Adam drew his sword.

“We can’t let him go,” Adam said reasonably. “He’s going to turn into a zombie, and there’s nothing we can do about that. Trust me, killing him now would be the humane thing to do,” he added gently.

“He’s a human being,” Kris insisted desperately.

“Not anymore,” Adam replied, the compassion in his voice all for Kris. “There’s nothing we can do to help him, except save him from an horrific end. The change isn’t pretty, and once he turned we’d just have to kill him anyway.”

“I know,” Kris said, “it’s just . . . . I hope whatever it was he wanted from Morris was worth it.”

“We’ll never know,” Adam said, and then he swung the sword.

~*~*~*~

Kris still had blood under his nails, and no amount of scrubbing was getting it off. Kris knew, intellectually, that they’d done the right thing, the _only_ thing they could do, but it still ate at his soul. He was close to screaming in frustration when Adam appeared and reached into the sink, taking Kris’ hands in his. He produced a fresh toothbrush and used it to scrub at the blood around and beneath Kris’ fingernails.

Kris just watched for a moment – he wasn’t a stranger to the awful things people did to each other, but there something about having learned about the existence of the supernatural that made Kris feel like a rookie all over again.

“Where’d you get a toothbrush?” Kris said, finally focusing on their hands.

“Even vampires need to be concerned with good oral hygiene,” Adam said dryly.

Kris chuckled, as he was supposed to. He let Adam clean his other hand, and then gently pat dry both.

“Come,” Adam said, leading Kris back to the living room and settling him on the couch with a blanket around his shoulders and a bottle of beer in his hand.

Adam hovered for a moment, as if he wasn’t sure what he should do next to make Kris feel better, before taking a seat on the couch beside him. Kris had learned the hard way that a nice Adam was a dangerous Adam. As sexy as ‘grrr!’ Adam was, nice Adam was even more difficult to resist.

Self-preservation made Kris lean forward, intent on setting down the bottle and slipping out of the blanket. “I should go.”

“You should take a few minutes to unwind,” Adam disagreed. “You just had a very stressful experience.”

Yeah, Kris thought, shooting a zombie that had once been a human being in the head, and having to dig the bullet out of its brain so there was no evidence that pointed to Kris, and then watching another soon to be zombie lose its head, would do that to you.

What he said was, “I’m not sleeping with you.”

“Got it,” Adam said, smirking, “no sleeping.”

Kris’ cheeks heated at the intent in Adam’s eyes despite his light tone.

“Though I do find it interesting that your mind went there.”

“I’m just saying,” Kris said, taking a sip of the beer so he didn’t have to look at Adam.

“You’ve been thinking about it.”

Kris refused to reply, which was an admission in itself, he realized belatedly.

“It _was_ pretty good.”

“It was alright,” Kris lied, and Adam burst out laughing.

“Bite me,” Kris muttered, and then flushed an even deeper crimson when he remembered that Adam already had. The sense memory of it made little sparks of heat burst in his belly.

“Mmm,” Adam said, “now _that_ was awesome.”

“I hate you,” Kris said.

“Maybe you wish you hated me, but you don’t.”

Kris heard the uncertainty behind the bravado, but even if he hadn’t Kris couldn’t lie, or let Adam believe it. “No,” he said, “I don’t wish that.”

“Hmm,” Adam said, then held out his arm.

Kris shook his head, but allowed himself to be bundled beneath Adam’s arm just the same. The tension bled out of his muscles as Adam slid his hands over him, fingers digging in when he found a knot. It still surprised Kris that a being that could scale a building in the blink of an eye, or rip the arm off a goblin, could be such a cuddler.

Kris closed his eyes and sighed as he went boneless under Adam’s hands. Adam took the bottle out of Kris’ hand and set it aside, then went back to turning Kris into a limp noodle. Adam’s touch was relaxing, right up until the moment it wasn’t. Kris went from feeling languid to having little fingers of electricity tingling under his skin. He arched under Adam’s hands and curled up to press his lips to the soft skin at Adam’s throat.

Adam growled, and his fingers tightened as they stroked Kris’ skin. Kris squirmed around and pulled himself up so he straddled Adam’s lap.

“I’m still not sleeping with you,” he said as he licked at Adam’s lips.

“No,” Adam agreed, closing his hands on Kris’ hips and dragging him closer.

Kris moaned as his groin met Adam’s. He slid his hands up Adam’s neck to cradle his head, and then pressed his tongue between Adam’s lips. Adam moved his hands over Kris’ back with a new purpose. Kris broke the kiss so he could breathe, and Adam let him.

When their eyes met, Adam’s gaze held both heat and tenderness. Kris knew it was ridiculous, but he suddenly felt shy. He’d been naked with Adam before, but somehow this time it felt different.

The first time had been a continuation of the fight that had preceded it. Adrenaline had fueled Kris’ response when Adam pushed him against the door of his office as soon as it had closed behind them. The couch in his office (and the desk) had been put to uses Kris had never dreamt of, and they’d walked away with nearly as many bruises from the sex as from the battle with the minions of a unpleasant succubus.

Kris had learned something about himself that he wasn’t very proud of the night he’d met the young man that Adam intended to feed from outside his apartment door. Jealousy burned in his belly every second of the five minutes the two were in Adam’s bedroom doing whatever Adam did with the people he fed from, and imagining it in excruciating detail.

Kris knew that they hadn’t been in there long enough to have sex, but he wanted to wipe the glow of satisfaction off the man’s face as Adam led him to the door. He wasn’t used to having such violent emotions towards someone that wasn’t a criminal, and he struggled to suppress them even as he sought to understand them.

Adam had turned to Kris after closing the door, raised his eyebrows in that infuriatingly arrogant manner, and said, “What was so important that you had to interrupt my . . . .”

Kris had shut Adam up the quickest way he knew; by sticking his tongue in Adam’s mouth. It was hours later that Kris remembered the reason he’d come to see Adam in the first place.

The last time had been angry and punishing, as well as life affirming. Kris had missed having his head separated from the rest of his body by a hairs breadth, and thanks mostly to Adam’s timely intervention. Once Adam had killed the ogre by using its own axe against it, he’d turned on Kris.

Kris had felt a frisson of fear at the expression on Adam’s face, but it had quickly morphed to arousal when Adam pushed him up against the nearest wall and bit at his mouth as he’d shoved his hand down Kris’ jeans. “Mine,” Adam had proclaimed before sinking his teeth into Kris’ throat and tightening his hand around Kris’ cock.

Kris hadn’t stood a chance when faced with Adam’s intensity. Kris thought he may have lost the battle before he’d even realized he was in the fight, the night months ago that Adam had introduced himself to Kris by warning him to stay away from things he didn’t understand.

That was why a nice Adam was a very dangerous Adam; he made Kris forget all the reasons that the two of them being together was a bad idea.

“You think too much,” Adam said.

Kris snorted. One of them had to think with their big brain, though Kris thought that Adam was overstating Kris’ ability to do so at the moment.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” Adam said as he drew his hand over Kris’ shoulder, then gently pressed his thumb to the mark he’d left on Kris’ neck.

Kris moaned and arched into the touch. “That’s cheating.”

“All’s fair in love and war,” Adam quoted back to him.

“Which one is this?”

“Both,” Adam said, “until you surrender to the inevitable.”

Kris tried to voice a retort, but his entire body was clamoring for Adam’s touch. He rocked his hips, trying to ease his need, but only managed to inflame it.

“Tell me what you need,” Adam said.

You, Kris thought, but what he said was, “I need to forget.”

“I can do that,” Adam said, rising in one smooth move and taking Kris with him.

Kris’ legs went around Adam’s hips and he tried not to think about what he was getting himself into. He had a sinking feeling that it was too late for him, anyway. They reached the bed in record time – there was something to be said for vampiric speed – and Adam pressed Kris’ back to the mattress.

Kris groaned as Adam ground their hips together, then pressed his lips to his mark. Kris arched into the touch; rocking his hips into Adam, opening up his neck to Adam’s ministrations. Offering himself to Adam.

Later Kris might kick himself for being so easy, so _needy_. And for making that sound when Adam touched him _right there_. But that would come later. Right now he was too busy trying to get their clothes off to worry about that.

Tomorrow, when the sun came up, Kris would go to work like any regular day. He’d help people find lost items and missing friends, spy on husbands and wives, run background checks. All normal things. He’d try to forget about Adam and things that went bump in the night as best he could.

And then the sun would set.

The End


End file.
